This is the second tutorial on the road to generating script files for After Effects. I read the comments from Part 1 stating that those are expressions, not actual Javascripts. I figured, to learn what Javascript does from scratch, you have to understand expressions first, because you can immediately see what the changes do. There will be one more tutorial on placing layers with expressions, then we’ll move on to actual scripts. In this tutorial you will learn how for-loops can help analyzing several frames in order to customize effects.

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Tutorial

Additional Aetuts+ Resources

• Create Your Own Custom Effects!
• Connect Your Scale Relative To The Camera’s Position
• Generate Your Own Splendid Spirographical Designs
• QuickTip – Creating Circular And Spiral Motion Paths
• Learn How to Create a Light Rays Custom Effect from Scratch

Tonight at 7pm EST We will be streaming a live video feed from our Envato Community Night here in Chicago. This will give you a chance to “hang out” with the Envato staff as we have an informal meet and greet with those who use the sites. Each site editor, including myself, will make a point to come over and say hello. For those who can’t make it, we’ll record the stream to go back and watch later.

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Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Q & A Time

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create nice looking particle-generated 3D text. Instead of faking the 3D look, let Particular draw whatever shape or design you want in actual 3D space and bring your fancy titles to a new level!

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Tutorial

Introduction

I understand that it’s obviously better to use a 3D application to create 3D stuff. But I believe there are people who don’t know how anything about such applications or perhaps don’t have the time to learn new things. Anyway, you can use this technique to “draw” pretty much any shape in 3D. And yea, I know that there isn’t hardcore science behind this, but in my opinion the end result looks very good.

Understanding the screenshots in this tutorial might be a bit difficult at times (I have 24″ monitor and had to crop them a lot), so I uploaded the original screenshots and you can download them in a .zip file here.

Step 1

Create a new composition called “Particle text”, make it 1280×720 25 fps and 25 seconds long.

Step 2

Create a new solid layer called “background” and make it white.

Step 3

Create a new text layer (use any font you like) and type “aetuts”.

Step 4

Right click on the text layer you’ve just created and select “Create masks from Text”.

Step 5

Create a new null object and call it “null – outlines”.

Step 6

Now we need to take the mask points and use them to animate the “null – outlines” so it follows the mask paths and can be used later for the X,Y coordinates in Particular. Click on the “aetuts Outlines” layer that was created by AE, hit “M”, click on “Mask path” of the mask “a”, copy it (Ctrl-c), click on the “Position” property of the null and paste the data (Ctrl-v). Repeat this step with all mask paths. After copying all data the null should “draw” the text you typed (in this case “aetuts”).

Step 7

Create a new solid layer and call it “Particular”.

Step 8

Apply the Particular effect obviously.

Step 9

Alt-click on the Position XY property and pickwhip the Position property of our null object.

Step 10

The expression is:

thisComp.layer(“null – outlines”).transform.position

Step 11

Now Particular should follow the outlines of our text layer. Set all Velocity values to 0 to make it stick to the mask path. Also set Emitter Type to “Box”, Emitter Size X and Y to 0 and Emitter Size Z to 30.

Step 12

Create a new camera, doesn’t matter what settings.

Step 13

Create a new light, change the Light Type to “Spot”, Intensity to 150%, Cone Angle to 160°, Cone Feather to 50% and make it yellow. Uncheck “Casts Shadows”.

Step 14

Switch to Top view and position the light as shown on the picture bellow.

Step 15

Duplicate the light and position it on the other side of the text.

Step 16

Double click on the duplicated light and change its color to red.

Step 17

Go to Particular -> Shading and turn it on. Also change the Nominal Distance value to 300 and Diffuse to 90.

Step 18

Now we will create particles that will kind of reveal our text. Make a new solid and call it “PW – lines” (as in Particle World).

Step 19

Apply the CC Particle World effect.

Step 20

Your particle text should look somewhat similar to the picture bellow.

Step 21

At first we need to make the PW particles follow the path too. Alt-click on Position X and type the following into the expression box:

x=thisCompLayer(“null – outlines”).transform.position[0]-thisComp.width/2;
x/thisComp.width

Alt-click on Position Y and type the following into the expression box:

y=thisCompLayer(“null – outlines”).transform.position[1]-thisComp.height/2;
y/thisComp.width

Alt-click on Position Z and type the following into the expression box:

z=thisCompLayer(“Particular”).effect(“Particular”)(“Position Z”);
z/thisComp.width

Step 22

Now let’s change some of the settings.
Turn Grid off obviously.
Set Birth Rate to 1.5.
Set Longetivity to 0.5.
Set Radius X,Y,Z to 0.
Set Velocity to 0.05.
Set Inherit Velocity to 25.
Set Gravity to 0.
Set Max Opacity to 50.
Change the particle Birth and Death colors as shown on the picture bellow.
Set Transfer Mode to Add.

Click on Options->Render Settings and check “Force Motionblur”.

Step 23

Apply Fast Blur and set Blurriness to 1.

Step 24

Duplicate the “PW – lines” layer by pressing Ctrl-D and change the values as shown on the picture bellow.

Step 25

Duplicate the “PW – lines” again, name it “PW – polygon” and put it bellow the original “PW – lines” layer.

Step 26

Change the settings of the “PW – polygon” layer according to the screenshot.

Step 27

Duplicate the “PW – polygon” layer, put it above all PW layers and change the settings accordingly.

Step 28

And for the last time duplicate the “Pw – polygon 2″ layer and change its settings.

Step 29

Create a new solid layer, make it black and name it “Shadow”.

Step 30

Put it just above the background layer.

Step 31

Draw masks as shown on the screenshot bellow. We are basically going to fake some sort of 3D shadow by creating couple of masks around places where normal shadow would appear.

Step 32

Create another mask that will cover all previous masks.

Step 33

Animate the big last mask so it reveals the smaller shadow masks you’ve created earlier as particular animates and gets closer to them.

Step 34

Rename the shadow layer to “Shadow – close”, make it 3D, rotate it to 270° on the X axis and change its position to 427px on the Y axis (so it looks like it’s just underneath the text). If you aren’t sure what’s the right value here then just check the Position value of the “null – outlines” layer – you’re looking for the highest value.

Step 35

Apply the Box Blur effect, set Blur Radius to 15 and Iterations to 2.

Step 36

Duplicate the “Shadow – close” layer and change its settings.

Step 37

Duplicate it again, change its name to “Shadow – distant”, delete the Box Blur effect, apply Fast Blur and set Blurriness to 130.

Step 38

Duplicate the “Shadow – distant” layer twice and change Blurriness to 150.

Step 39

Duplicate the “aetuts Outlines” layer, make it 3D and rename it as “Front”.

Step 40

Go to Material Options (press AA) and turn Accepts Shadows and Accepts Lights Off. Also change the layer color to blue.

Step 41

Select all shadow layers, press P and set their Z-position to 70.

Step 42

Parent all shadow layers to the Front layer.

Step 43

Now let’s change Particular’s settings to make it look a bit better. Set Particles/sec to 2000, Life to 25, Sphere Feather to 0, Size to 2 and Opacity to 50.

Step 44

Alt-click on Position Z and type the following:

effect(“Particular”)(“Emitter Size Z”)/2-1

This way we tell Particular to push the particles back in the Z-space so they line up nicely with the Front layer.

Step 45

Put the Front layer above the Particular one.

Step 46

Apply the Roughen Edges to the Front layer.

Step 47

Change the settings as shown on the picture bellow to roughen the edges a bit.

Step 48

Set Opacity of the Fron layer to 30%.

Step 49

Duplicate the Front layer, name it “Front – fractal” and set the Transfer Mode to Screen.

Step 50

Apply the Fractal Noise effect and change its settings as shown on the screenshot. It kind of doesn’t matter what values you use, just make it animate so the front layer doesn’t look static. Also change the transfer mode to “Screen”.

Step 51

Apply the Curves effect to the Front – fractal layer and play around with the values.

Step 52

Apply the Fast Blur effect and set Blurriness to 2. Apply the Glow effect and set Glow Threshold to 70.

Step 53

Duplicate the Front layer, name it Back and make it black. And put it bellow the Particular layer.

Step 54

As the layer name suggests, this will be our back layer. Alt-click on Position and type the following:

x=transform.position[0];
y=transform.position[1];
z=thisComp.layer(“Particular”).effect(“Particular”)(“Emitter Size Z”);
[x,y,z]

This way the back layer will be positioned at the end of the particles (talking about the Z-space).

Step 55

At this point we will get rid of those annoying lines that appear when Particular is skipping from one letter to another. Select null – outlines and press P, it will help you place new keyframes for Particular. Make a keyframe for Particles/sec one frame before the end of current letter and set it to 20000. Move one frame forward (which is the last keyframe of current letter) and set Particles/sec to 0. Move one frame forward yet again (which is the very first keyframe of the next letter) and set Particles/sec to 20000. Basically we are just trying to set Particles/sec to 0 every time Particular “skips” onto the next letter.

Step 56

In Particular->Shading turn Shadowlet for Main particles on and set Placement to “Always behind”.

Step 57

Apply Fast Blur to the Particular layer and set Blurriness to 1. Also apply the Glow effect and set Glow Threshold to 65% and Glow Radius to 15.

Step 58

Feel free to adjust light’s position …

Step 59

… and other properties.

Step 60

And the same for the second light.

Step 61

Duplicate the “Front – fractal” layer, name it “dots”, change transfer mode to Add and delete all effects.

Step 62

Apply the Stroke, Glow and Fast Blur effects and change their settings as shown on the screenshot bellow.

Step 63

Go to Particular->Rendering and set Render Mode to “Motion Preview”. This is just temporary so the scene gets rendered faster.

Step 64

Go to dots and change the stroke color to red so we can see the dots better.

Step 65

But let’s animate the camera first. In my case the camera movement ends at 16:07 with the values shown on the screenshot. At this point I also temporarily disabled background.

Step 66

And obviously change the camera settings at the beginning too.

Step 67

Go to 16:07 and set a keyframe for the End property and make it 100%.

Step 68

Go to the beginning of the composition and set End to 0%.

Step 69

Now you are going to have quite a lot of keyframes to make sure that the dots follow the particles. It doesn’t matter if the dots are slighly lagging behind the particles, but make sure they are in no case ahead.

Step 70

Go to Particular and change Size over Life and Opacity over Life as shown on the screenshot bellow. At this point I also temporarily switched back to Full Render mode to see how the particles get rendered.

Step 71

Now (back in Motion Preview mode) when you click on the Front layer you can see that the particles actually don’t follow the original mask path. There are two ways of fixing this. You can either make the composition last longer (like 40 seconds, assuming that you would make all layers last longer too) thus giving Particular more time to render the particles or you can just adjust the masks so they match the particles. And that’s exactly what we are about to do.

Step 72

Just adjust the mask points, it’s no big deal.

Step 73

Select all mask paths of the Front layer and copy them (Ctrl-C).

Step 74

Select the Front – fractal layer, delete the current masks and paste the fixed ones.

Step 75

Do the same for the dots layer.

Step 76

Go to Particular and change the Render Mode back to Full Render so we can see the result so far. Also enable the background layer.

Step 77

Go to 17:00 (that’s where I want my animation to end) and set a keyframe for Physics Time Factor.

Step 78

Move one frame forward and set it to 0.

Step 79

Select all CC Particular World layers and enable them.

Step 80

With all PW layers selected and at 16:07 set a keyframe for Birth Rate. Move one frame forward and set them to 0 so the particles stop emitting.

Step 81

Enable the dots layer and change the color to white.

Step 82

Go to 16:18 and set keyframes for the Position property of the Front and Front – fractal layers. Set them to -1000 (the Z value) . Go to 17:00 and set them back to 0.

Step 83

Disable the expression for the position of the Back layer.

Step 84

We have to change the expression so we can actually make the layer animate. The x and y variables stay the same, the only difference in in the z variable. Updated expression:

x=transform.position[0];
y=transform.position[1];
z=transform.position[2]+thisComp.Layer(“Particular”).effect(“Particular”)(“Emitter Size Z”);
[x,y,z]

This way the Z value is computed from its actual value + the Emitter Size Z value.

Step 85

At 17:00 push the Back layer all the way back and don’t forget to make a keyframe.

Step 86

At 17:06 set the Z-position back to 30.

Step 87

Create a new null object and name it “null – camera”. Also parent the camera to this null. We will use it to control our camera shake effect.

Step 88

Apply Slider Control three times.

Step 89

Rename them as Position, Rotation and Speed.

Step 90

Select the null – camera layer, hit P, Alt-click on Position and type the following:

p = effect(“Position”)(“Slider”);
s = effect(“Speed”)(“Slider”);
wiggle(s,p);

Hit R, Alt-click on Rotation and type the following:

r = effect(“Rotation”)(“Slider”);
s = effect(“Speed”)(“Slider”);
wiggle(s,r);

This way we can control the position and rotation value via the sliders.

Step 91

At 16:24 (when the front layers are about to hit the particles) set all sliders to 0.

Step 92

Move one frame forward and set the Position slider to 50, the Rotation slider to 2 and the Speed slider to 5.

Step 93

Go to 17:12 (we want our shake effect to last for 12 frames) and set the sliders to 0.

Step 94

But the thing is that we want to have two shake effects (one for the front layers, one for the back layer). But we are using only one camera controller so we need to set three keyframes at 17:05 (one frame before the impact of the back layer) to kind of let the original shake effect fade out. Also don’t forget to delete the three keyframes with 0 value placed at 17:12 – we won’t need them anymore.

Step 95

At 17:06 reset the slider values back to 50, 2 and 5.

Step 96

Go to 18:00 and set all sliders to 0.

Step 97

Go to 23:00. We will animate the camera once again and make it come back to the beginning of our particle text. Also select all camera keyframes and press F9 to apply Easy ease.

Step 98

At this point I decided to tweak the shake values a bit, so at 17:05 I changed them to the ones shown on the screenshot bellow.

Step 99

Delete all layers that aren’t used and turn on Motion Blur for desired layers.

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Additional Aetuts+ Resources

• Create a Mysterious Smoky Logo Reveal
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• Writing with Colored Sand
• This Logo Will Self Destruct In 5 Seconds
• Freeze Your Logo With A Snowy Transition

There are some things that you probably shouldn’t ever shoot without. For me, my prized tools are my skateboard and gaffer’s tape. For you, they may be something else. Here is a small list of some things that have been very useful on the shoots that I have been on.

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Gaffer’s Tape

Long gone are the days of when I used duct tape for everything, I have since seen the light. If you have never used Gaffer’s tape, it is far superior, stick nicely to the things you need, and doesn’t leave any annoying residue when you take it off. The tape itself is actually made of a cloth type material, and is very strong. Helps for if you need to fix a broken light stand, attach a component to your camera, or tape down a green screen. It runs a little more pricey than duct tape, but a roll of this will save you hours of picking goop off of your tools afterward.

Dry Erase Board

If you are shooting short films, or have a lot of different shots for a commercial, you might want to invest in a slate. Or you could just hit the craft store and get a dry erase board and some markers for about a tenth of the price. This will make things easier on you when you bring your shots into your editor, and lets you identify them nice and easily.

Flashlight or LED Keychain

This is definitely a little $2 piece that I use daily, even if I am not shooting. If you need to peek into your pack to find something, if its dark out and you left your lens cap in the grass, or if you just need a little bit of light to find the keyholes for a location, this will definitely save you a bout of frustration. Next time you are on your way to a shoot, pick one up at the cash register at the gas station, you will be amazed at how much you will turn to it.

Cushion for Knees, Elbows & Shoulders

You know those garderning foam mats your grandmother uses to kneel in the garden and trim her petunias? That is exactly what I am talking about. We all have to get that epic low shot, or change our perspective once in a while, and sometimes our tripod doesn’t go low enough. Throw a mat down underneath the part of your body that is taking the bulk of your weight…. and RELEIF! No more sore knees tomorrow!

Garbage Bags

No, they aren’t to carry your junk, but to aid as another thing to lay down on if you are getting a shot. You don’t want to be getting your threads all gunked up in the dirt, or after a fresh downpour… Just cut up a big garbage bag and lay it out flat. Weigh it down with some rocks nearby, and you will stay squeaky clean!

Skateboard or Inline Skates

This is definitly the poor man’s approach to a dolly/truck shot. But you can do a bit more than that. Just last week I did a few 360 orbit shots of some mopeds using nothing but my camera, an Ikan Superfly cage for grip, and my skateboard. Client thought the shots looked gorgeous and I wasn’t out a ton of money buying track. You might need to do some stabilization afterwards in post, but at least you can get the genral movement of the shot.

3 Prong to 2 Prong Plug Converter and Extension Cords

How many times have you had an extension cord, and there are only 2 prong outlets available on a power strip? You’re camera is out of batteries and you still have an hour of shooting left? Well, no more wasting time… just grab a couple of these at the hardware store, and attach them to everything with a 3 prong head on it. You will never, ever run into this situation ever again with a 3 prong to 2 prong adapter.

Laptop & Appropriate Cables and Card Readers

There are a couple of reasons why you will want to have this on hand. One, your client might really want to see that shot blown up, and you might want to check your focus, light and such on a larger screen if you don’t have a monitor available. Second, if you work with card based cameras, you might run out of room and have to unload your media onto your hard drive to shoot more footage past the capacity of your memory cards. You never know when you might forget to hit STOP RECORD on one of the best shots of the day.

Fans

If you shoot a lot of green screen, or studio production, you will notice that your talent tends to get very heated under those lights. Give them a small personal fan, or have some box fans at the studio to circulate the air so everyone stays happy. Overheated actors are not happy actors… leads to frustration, flustration, and overall sweating, which is never good looking on video.

Leatherman & Other Tools

It’s always smart to have pliers, screwdriver and a pocket knife available for a multitude of tasks. You might need to tighten a light stand, your tripod legs, screw the shoe into your camera, or whatever. You never want to get caught without a means to fix your set when a problem presents itself.

Big Carboard Box Painted White

This will serve three very different purposes. One, it will act as a white balance card. Second, you can bounce light onto a subject, and third you can block light for a subject. Make sure you grab one of those really big boxes (non-glossy) for something like funiture, break it down and tape the ends together so it won’t un-collapse. Then grab a can of white spray paint and put a few coats on it. Viola! You didn’t have spend $50 on a 5-in-1 (although I do recommend having something like that for diffusion.)

Extra Batteries

I can’t stress enough how important enough battery life is, especially if you aren’t going to be able plugin to AC power anywhere. Things like lavalier mics always suck the life out of 9 volt batteries, and your camera can never have enough batteries packed with it. If you can, pick up a battery extender (like this one for the T2i/550D) for your model of camera that takes AA batteries, and pick up a mondo pack of those from Costco if you are going to be out on shoot all day.

Hair Accessories

This is a huge pet peeve of mine, when an actor or actress has hair that hangs over their cheek and a strong light source, natural or not is casting a harsh shadow across their face. Sometimes you just have to give them a hair tie and tell them to pull it back. I Would keep some gel, hair spray, a couple hair clips and hair ties in your bag for just such an occasion.

Zip Ties and Scissors

If you need to bunch cords together, or fix a shirt with a buttom that just broke off… this will work for you. Use those along with scissors to cut the long annoying ends off and its a perfect combo. You can also use those scissors to cut stray threads from shirts that are obtrusive, and just some other general damage control.

Digital Camera

If you are a continuity nazi like I am, this will be a must especially if you talent likes to take frequent water breaks or sits down to rest. There is nothing worse than getting back to the edit suite after a long, tiresome day of shooting and having continuity errors. Use a simple digital camera, or the camera on your iPhone or other smartphone to take a snapshot at the end of the scene so you know where to pick up where you left off.

Powder

Shinyness on an talent’s face is never flattering. It will help if you have some powder from a place like BenNye.com, that you can powder your actor down when they are looking a little shiny. Get rid of those harsh speculars!

If you have some tools, tricks, or maneuvers that you use when you are out on a shoot, we would love to know! Leave a comment below and let us know what your favorite was, or what you would add to the list!

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